Naxos Music Library eResource

Our colleague, Hiru at Kensington Central Library has taken a good look at one of our eResources.

Access our eResource, Naxos Music Library online for free, with your Kensington and Chelsea library card.

You can check out online music streaming with Naxos Music Library and much more. Whether it’s orchestral, ballet, opera, vocal, world, rock, jazz and even your favourite film music, you can listen in peace at home, in a crowded tube, among friends or at work.

Naxos Music Library is the world´s largest online classical music library. Stream over two and half million tracks, with 600 titles being added each month.

A selection of musical genres subscribers can choose from

Search results for Jazz Waltz

Learn about your favourite music, listen to samples of works to learn about a composer or genre. Try the different playlists or create your own. If you are a music student, try out the resources page, where you find aural training exercises and work analysis of different composers.

You will be amazed on what you can find on the Naxos Music Library. Just by typing Swan Lake in the keyword search on the Categories tab, you would find 492 recording to listen to:

Search results for the well know ballet, Swan Lake

Introduce children to classical music and stories from ballet:

Delve into world music, music of different countries, including the English Country Garden:

Immerse yourself into opera.  There are 821 recordings of the Barber of Seville:

You can stream on your laptop, tablet or smart phone.  No need for an app, just click on this link to login with your library card: https://rbkc.naxosmusiclibrary.com/login/library/card

Resources page on Naxos Music Library

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Children’s Book of the Week: When a Monster is Born by Sean Taylor, illustrated by Nick Sharratt

Our children’s book this week introduces readers to the two basic kinds of monster.  On every page there are two possible outcomes… but some possibilities are more horrible than others!  Here are five monstrous things to do, inspired by the story. 

1. When a Monster is Born – read aloud

So, when a monster is born, what kind of monster will it be?  Find out by watching this read aloud version, over on YouTube.

An illustration from When a Monster is Born

2. Sponge monsters

These sponge monsters are a lot of messy fun, and great for younger kids.

Photo of a child’s painting made of sponge prints

3. How to make a paper monster puppet

These paper puppets are amazingly easy and fun to make – this video shows you how.

Photo of two paper monster hand puppets

4. How to make monster cupcakes

Baking with the kids is a nice activity for a rainy afternoon – here is a monster cupcake tutorial for Halloween.

Photo of a green monster cupcake

5. Monster party games for kids

And finally, we found some party games to help your little monsters celebrate Halloween indoors!

Photo of a Halloween pumpkin. Photo credit: Łukasz Nieścioruk 

Children’s Book of the Week: The Chocolate Monster by Pip Jones and Laura Hughes

This week’s children’s book of the week is The Chocolate Monster by Pip Jones and Laura Hughes.  The Chunk is a monster who goes around stealing chocolate.  We found five chocolatey things to do online, all inspired by the story.   

1. The Chocolate Monster Read Aloud

Let’s kick off with an awesome read aloud version of the story; watch it here on YouTube.

2. One Minute perfect chocolate mug cake

Here is an extremely simple recipe that makes a delicious chocolate cake in a mug.

3. Monster bookmarks

We love these super-cute monster bookmarks, and kids can make them over and over again.

4. DIY Paper plate monsters

These paper plate monsters are in fact masquerade masks, perfect for Halloween.

5. Paper plate monster craft

And finally, the classic paper plate craft gets a monstrous twist.

Chelsea in Bloom – Part Two

Its Chelsea Flower Show this week, and here is Zvezdana again to share her hot air balloon craft activity.

Comic Fun at Brompton Library!

An intrepid and curious band of children and adults rocked up to Brompton Library to discover the ins and outs of designing cartoons from scratch! We were guided by cartoon artist John Byrne who in next to no time got us recreating and producing our very own masterpieces.

Chocolate event with Canela Fina! at Brompton library

Our old friends Canela Fina! delivered yet another great event for Brompton library with their chocolate event for children. We had a full house with everyone champing at the bit to get to the eating part of the event. Of course, that came at the end, so before that we had a history of where chocolate came from and how it’s made, all with graphics on our screen, and then the chocolate song with hand actions that was so fast in the end no-one could keep up with it… but had great fun trying!

Then came the part that everyone had been waiting for – tasting the white, brown and black chocolate before drawing pictures of the Aztec god of chocolate (I hadn’t known there was one!) and then, even better, being given two little doughnuts to decorate with chocolate sauce (white and brown) and sprinkles.

Well, you can’t go wrong with chocolate, can you?

[Stephanie]

Harry Potter Moving Portraits at North Kensington Library

On Wednesday, 1st February and Saturday, 4th February North Kensington Library opened its doors to Harry Potter fans of all ages and invited them to take part in a series of special Harry Potter Book Night craft workshops.

Harry Potter Extravaganza at Kensington Central Library!

The third annual Harry Potter Book Night has been and gone but we here at Kensington Central Library are still buzzing from the excitement from last week’s Harry Potter Extravaganza event.

Regretfully, the professors of Hogwarts were unable to find time in their busy schedules to come along to the event but did entrust us with some of their best prefects.

There was a lot of magical fun to be had, take a look and see what we got up to.

Brompton gets down and dirty!

On a drizzly, wet afternoon after school last week Brompton Library was pleased to welcome our friend Matthew from the Ecology Centre who brightened everyone’s day with the promise of growth and renewal by the planting of a pea!

Matthew was inundated with keen kids and their carers who were shown how to make an environmentally friendly plant pot with newspaper and a wooden press. They then added some compost and the seed and Hey Presto! – they had a seed to nurture at home.

In this part of the borough most of the housing is in flats, whether they’re in mansion blocks with their own garden squares or social housing with a local park, so many kids won’t be used to getting their hands stuck in to garden soil or watching their own plant grow from a seed to an edible vegetable.

Let’s hope that at least some survive (though I have my doubts!)

Many thanks to the Ecology Centre – the plant potters event is new to libraries this academic year and I hope it’s as well received at other libraries as it was here. See our latest events listing or ask in your nearest RBKC library for the next Plant Potters event.

     

[Stephanie Webb]

Half-term Diary: Kensington Central Library

It was half-term last week and we made the most of it!

With an exciting program to keep our youngest patrons entertained, there was something for everyone and much fun to be had.

Take a look at what we got up to!